The operation of a railroad involves the coupling and uncoupling of individual railcars and/or groups of railcars to one or more locomotives to form predetermined trains for specific hauling routes. “Car-kicking” is a method of breaking apart an existing train at a predetermined location in the string of railcars. Car-kicking is used at industrial sites, or in railcar classification yards, where a conventional hump/automatic retarder classification system is not available. The kicking operation typically requires a very skilled locomotive operator, ground operator and switchman to work in close coordination to safely and properly separate the train using this method.
The locomotive accelerates the railcars to be kicked to a desired speed and toward aligned switches. When the cars are moving, or when the desired speed is achieved, a man on the ground pulls the coupling pin from between adjacent railcars where the train will be broken. The locomotive engineer knows through experience when to decelerate the locomotive and quickly throttles down the locomotive and applies hard braking. The ensuing rapid deceleration of the locomotive sends a run-out wave down the train, causing the cars still coupled to the locomotive to decelerate, while the uncoupled cars continue to roll toward the desired track through the aligned switches.
Both the ground operator and locomotive engineer know which cars are to “kick” off of the train. The locomotive engineer may consider a number of parameters such as the number of cars to be “kicked”, the weight of each car and the distance the cars are to be kicked from the locomotive, in order to time the deceleration of the locomotive so the uncoupled cars have sufficient momentum to roll through the repositioned switches and for a sufficient distance onto the side rail. Once the run-out wave has been sent, the locomotive operator must quickly decrease, or release, the brakes to prevent sliding of the locomotive wheels that could cause wheel damage. If several railcars or groups of cars are to be sent to other tracks in the classification yard, or industrial sidings, the ground man will call for another “shove” from the locomotive while the switchman repositions track switches to align the next set of uncoupled cars to roll onto another track.
It is known to remotely control a locomotive using a handheld operator control unit (OCU) that that is in radio communication with associated remotely controlled equipment onboard the locomotive. Such units are often used for switching operations. Canac, Inc. of Montreal, Canada, sells one such locomotive radio control system under the trademark Beltpack. Despite the capabilities of remote operation of a locomotive, car-kicking operations often still require different operators to pull coupling pins and control the movement of the locomotive, due in part because current locomotive remote control systems do not facilitate the rapid and complex actions that a single operator would have to perform. There are too many controls on an operator remote control unit that require manipulation by both hands of the remote control operator to allow that same person to assume the function of pulling the coupling pin and controlling the locomotive in a safe and effective manner.